The IFTD Show was a few weeks back. I didn’t make it this year, but there were still plenty of folks there. Last year it was a good time. There was some over training on my part, but it was great to actually meet folks I had been talking to, or about, for a while.

The show is maybe mostly about relationships, but people come there to talk about gear.

The Best Saltwater Rod was the Vapen from Redington. Now… I got to fish the Vapen a bit here in mostly fresh water and I wasn’t a huge fan. That may have been largely because I got a bit hung up on the new grip. The rod itself felt pretty good. I said I would have liked the rod a lot more if it just had a cork grip and as it turns out, you can get it with a cork grip. That would help my opinion of it a lot.

That’s a grip you’ll see from a long ways off.

The best saltwater reel was given to the Nautilus CCFX2. I haven’t put my hands on one of those just yet. Sam Root captured the the deets.

The big fishing show is in Vegas and I’m not there. I’m not there for several reasons:

I was on the “babymoon” with my pregnant wife up in Mendocino where there was no fishing whatsoever.

I don’t actually work in the fly fishing industry, although I love it dearly.

The show is in Vegas. I hate Vegas.

Beyond that, I would have liked to have gone. It is great to get to meet some of the folks I write about or talk to through the blog. The show is one fishy collection of folks. This year they combined the fly fishing show with iCast, the larger general fishing show. I’ll be curious to hear how that marriage went.

At the IFTD show there were a lot of awards handed out. There was one that was missing… best brand themed adult beverage… the winner? Redington pretty much killed it with the Rogue brew.

Well played, and yummy.

They actually had gear to show too and Redington continues to do well at that “value” end of the market.

It seems redundant to tell you this is the Redington booth.

Next went over to Sage and saw some of their new gear. They have a few rods coming into the mid-price point that I think are likely interesting and then they have some reels. They have one reel that is coming out into that top-price-point and it looks good (as pretty much most reels at this price point do).

Looking good.

I’ll share more of what I saw there at the show over the coming days.

In the meantime, let me talk a little conservation. Odds are fair to good you are familiar with the No on Pebble Mine thing. There are some matching funds available right now, making this a very, very good time to support the efforts of TU to protect Bristol Bay and alllll those fish.

Well, they say the One from Sage is the “Best New Fly Rod.” Of course, one takes these sorts of pronouncements with a grain of salt. The “Best New” is probably not as good, or at least just as good, as a fair number of the “Best Old Fly Rods.”

Still, that’s what they’ve anointed it. Here’s a little video about the rod.

It isn’t clear to me if there is a saltwater version of this rod. All the shots are of freshwater, which makes me think this might not be salt-friendly, but they I saw some reference to “all-water,” which makes me think it is. They do have the Xi3, which is pretty badass already.

I’m not in New Orleans. That’s where it is all going down for the next few days. The International Fly Tackle Dealer show is in the Big Easy this year. New gear is getting talked about and shown off. Last year the big news was the NRX from G. Loomis. I haven’t heard what the buzz is about this year. Could be a $1,000 fly rod instead of just an $800 fly rod. Who knows.

Lots of people to watch down there. One you can follow is The Fiberglass Manifesto. Check your facebook and your twitter and your favorite fly blogs and you’ll likely see some cool stuff coming out.